Age Differences in Imagery Abilities

Abstract

Age differences were examined in 4 aspects of visual mental imagery, namely, image generation, maintenance, scanning, and rotation. The results suggested that one or more distinct processes are used to carry out each aspect of imagery, and that this is true for 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and adults. There was no evidence that younger children have fewer processing components, which become differentiated into more specialized subsystems over age. In addition, the results suggested that younger children are relatively poor at scanning, rotating, and generating objects in images, but are relatively good at maintaining images.

Manual training of mental rotation in children

“…Again, the mental rotation speed was slower than that of older children and much slower than that of adults. Other studies confirmed these results and indicate that young children posses mental rotation abilities by the age of 5 (e.g., Kosslyn, Margolis, Barrett, & Goldknopf, 1990).…”

When Is the Ball Going to Hit the Ground? Duration Estimates, Eye Movements, and Mental Imagery of Object Motion.

“…Individual differences in imagery ability have been observed frequently (Charlot, Tzourio, Zilbovicius, Mazoyer, & Denis, 1992;Lovell & Collins, 2002;Marks & Isaac, 1995). Imagery seems to be a skill that is acquired slowly during childhood (Piaget & Inhelder, 1971;Kosslyn, Margolis, Barrett, Goldknopf, & Daly, 1990) and, more important here, is also subject to learning during adulthood, as revealed by various training studies (e.g., Féry, 2003;Yaguez et al, 1998). In sum, there is evidence that imagery strategies are used in motion prediction tasks, but only a little is known about the role of eye movements during imagery of object motion.…”

Some factors underlying mathematical performance: The role of visuospatial working memory and non-verbal intelligence

“…The participant s were tested during school hours. The VSWM capacity (Wilson, Scott, & Power, 1987), the CE capacity (Siegel 1994) and mental rotation skills (Kosslyn, Margolis, Barrett, Goldknopf, & Daly, 1990) of adolescents, aged 15 to 16, are assumed to be at an adult level (see, however, Swanson, 1999). The basic structure of the WM appears to be present at least from the age of six (Gathercole, Pickering, Ambridge, & Wearing, 2004), but the capacity of each WM component still increases from childhood to adolescence (e.g., Siegel, 1994;Wilson et al, 1987).…”